Specialty Items

barbs tips

This section features all of Chef Barb’s favorite cooking tips. Enjoy!

COOK WITH YOUR KIDS: AND SHARE GREAT LIFE LESSONS

That’s right! There are so many lessons for children to learn while cooking. One of my earliest memories is of making pudding with my mother. I can still remember kneeling on a kitchen stool while my mother patiently guided my little hand in measuring the milk. She explained that if you keep stirring the pudding it wouldn’t burn and she also showed me how to prevent the pudding from getting a skin by covering it with plastic wrap. She showed me how to measure the cooked pudding into cups so that my sisters and I wouldn’t fight over who got more! Within that story you can find a math lesson, a lesson on evaporation and a social lesson on fairness – a really great parenting value for the fifteen minutes spent!

Science classes can be dry and abstract for children. Food gives kids an exciting hands-on opportunity to learn things like why foods brown or get crispy. They can also learn simple math skills like fractions and household measurements. Food also provides a medium for expressing love – never a bad thing!

So head to the kitchen with your kids (or grandkids) and teach them lessons they will value for a lifetime.